Report: U.S. in Talks to Declare Mideast Nuclear-free Zone
HAARETZ: The United States and Egypt are negotiating a proposal that would make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, saying the effort was a meant to prevent Iran from disrupting an upcoming UN conference on nuclear nonproliferation.

U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal that the move could be a significant step toward showing that Washington, who is often criticized of overlooking Israel's reported nuclear arsenal, could be even handed in its attempt to ensure the Middle East is free of nuclear weapons.

"We've made a proposal to them [Egypt] that goes beyond what the U.S. has been willing to do before," senior U.S. officials told the WSJ, adding that they didn't believe that would happen without first achieving major advances in Arab-Israeli peace talks. >>> Haaretz Service | Saturday, May 01, 2010

Muslim Daubs War Memorial But Walks Away from Court Virtually Scot-free
MAIL ONLINE: A Muslim protester who daubed a war memorial with graffiti glorifying Osama Bin Laden and proclaiming 'Islam will dominate the world' walked free from court after prosecutors ruled his actions were not motivated by religion.

Tohseef Shah, 21, could have faced a tougher sentence if the court had accepted that the insults - which included a threat to kill the Prime Minister - were inspired by religious hatred.

But - citing a loophole in the law - the Crown Prosecution Service chose not to charge him with that offence and he escaped with only a two-year conditional discharge and an order to pay the council £500 compensation after admitting causing criminal damage.

Yesterday the decision was attacked by politicians and veterans who were shocked by the desecration of the memorial in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Parliamentary Counter Terrorism sub-committee, said: 'This is an outrage against our war dead.'

Shah sprayed the words 'Islam will dominate the world - Osama 
is on his way' and 'Kill Gordon Brown' on the plinth of the memorial in December. Muslim Daubs War Memorial with 'Islam Will Dominate the World' - But Walks Free After CPS Says He Was NOT Racially Motivated >>> James Tozer | Friday, April 30, 2010

Jew Attacked with Knife, Iron Rod in France
YNET NEWS: Anti-Semitic incident in Strasbourg: Man wearing skullcap assaulted by two men in djellabas. Victim hospitalized with serious injuries after being hit in back, stabbed in chest; assailants arrested

A Jewish French citizen was seriously hurt Friday after being assaulted with an iron rod and a knife in the center of Strasbourg.

The DPA news agency reported that the man, 42, was attacked by two men wearing djellabas, robes traditionally worn in North Africa.

Eyewitnesses reported that the Jew, who was wearing a traditional skullcap, was hit in the back with the iron rod by one of the men, while the other stabbed him in the chest. The two assailants were arrested, and one of them was said to be mentally ill.

A representative of the umbrella association for Jewish organizations in the French Alsace region, Pierre Levy, called the incident a "serious anti-Semitic act." >>> Ynet | Saturday, May 01, 2010

Première en Europe: La Belgique interdit le port du voile intégral dans tout son espace public
LE POINT: Sans gouvernement et plongée dans une grave crise politique, la Belgique est néanmoins devenue jeudi le premier pays occidental à interdire le port du voile islamique intégral, avant la France qui prévoit de présenter un texte en mai. Pour une fois unanimes, quelle que soit leur couleur politique ou leur appartenance linguistique, les députés belges ont voté par 136 voix sur 138 députés présents un texte interdisant le port du voile, non seulement dans tous les services publics, mais aussi dans l'intégralité de l'espace public y compris la rue. Deux abstentions ont été comptabilisées. >>> LePoint.fr avec AFP | Vendredi 30 Avril 2010

Sparen ohne Ende in Griechenland: Papandreou stellt Landsleute auf weitere Massnahmen ein
NZZ ONLINE: Der griechische Ministerpräsident Giorgos Papandreou hat seine Landsleute auf weitere Sparmassnahmen eingestellt. Diese seien notwendig, um Griechenland vor dem Bankrott zu bewahren, erklärte er am Freitag vor dem Parlament in Athen.

Auch die EU und der Internationale Währungsfonds (IMF), die derzeit mit Griechenland über Beistandskredite verhandeln, werden von der Regierung weitere Sparanstrengungen fordern. Die Verhandlungen sollen bis zum Sonntag abgeschlossen sein. >>> ddp | Freitag, 30. April 2010

Frankreich will Männer für Burka büssen: Justizministerium teilt Details des geplanten Verbots mit
NZZ ONLINE: Nachdem in Belgien das Burka-Verbot vom Parlament beschlossen wurde, sind auch Details des geplanten französischen Gesetzes bekannt geworden. Demnach soll es vor allem harte Strafen für Männer geben, welche ihre Frauen zum Tragen des Schleiers zwingen.

Das in Frankreich geplante Verbot von muslimischen Ganzkörperschleiern soll mit harten Strafandrohungen kombiniert werden. Männer, die Frauen zum Tragen von Burka oder Niqab zwingen, müssen bis zu ein Jahr Haft und eine Geldstrafe von 15'000 Euro fürchten.

Frauen drohen beim Tragen eines Ganzkörperschleiers gemäss einem Gesetzesentwurf bis zu 150 Euro Strafe. Zusätzlich oder alternativ ist die Verpflichtung zu einem «staatsbürgerlichem Praktikum» angedacht. Bei ihm soll den Frauen vermittelt werden, warum in Frankreich das Verhüllen des Gesichts nicht erwünscht ist. >>> sda/afp | Freitag, 30. April 2010

Men Who Force Women to Wear Burka Would Face €15,000 Fine in France
THE TELEGRAPH: Anyone who forced a woman to wear a burka would face a fine of €15,000 (£13,000), according to leaked extracts of a proposed French law banning the face-covering Islamic veil.

While women caught wearing a burka or niqab would face a €150 penalty, President Nicolas Sarkozy would fine those making others wear them one hundred times that amount, and would sentence them to one year in prison.

"No-one may wear in public places clothes that are aimed at hiding the face," says the text of a new law that is to be presented to parliament in July, according to a copy seen by Le Figaro.

The law would create a new offence of "incitement to cover the face for reasons of gender," the centre-Right daily newspaper reported.

The extracts cited did not say whether the law would contain exemptions for people covering up their faces for popular non-religious purposes such as skiing, nor how these exceptions would be defined.

Legislators decided to impose a much smaller fine on women caught wearing the veil in public "because these women are often victims," one of the authors of the law told Le Figaro on condition of anonymity.

Women caught wearing the full veil could choose to attend a "citizenship course" instead of paying the fine, the paper said. >>> | Friday, April 30, 2010

Related links here and here and here and here

Pauline Hanson Takes Home Off Market
STUFF.co.nz: Former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has taken her Queensland home off the market, following a backlash against her decision not to sell to Muslims.

Ms Hanson has been forced to shelve plans to sell her million-dollar property in Coleyville, southwest of Brisbane, and move to Britain.

Her decision comes amid widespread outrage, prompted by remarks from the former politician that she's not prepared to sell to Muslims or foreign investors because the buyer has to be compatible with the Australian way of life.

Her LJ Hooker real estate agent, Keith Edwards, on Thursday said he'd received an onslaught of emails and calls following the controversial comments.

"Pauline withdrew the property from the market, and I no longer represent her and LJ Hooker no longer represent her," Mr Edwards told AAP.

"Some of (the emails) have been pretty upsetting...

"I got the abusive and threatening phone calls last night (Wednesday night), I didn't sleep.

"I got swags of abusive emails, with non-returnable addresses, just cowards." >>> AAP | Friday, April 30, 2010

Nick Clegg: We Have Taken Labour's Place in UK Politics
THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: Liberal Democrat leader rejects tactical voting, and says the race for PM is between him and Cameron

Nick Clegg today makes a bold pitch to Labour voters, claiming that the Liberal Democrats have supplanted Gordon Brown's party to become the natural home of progressive politics in Britain.

In a Guardian interview, Clegg accuses David Cameron of having no agenda for progressive reform of the country, and says the Lib Dems and Labour come from the same historical tradition.

He says he is rejecting all talk of tactical voting and is instead "going for broke" to maximise his party's share of the vote.

Clegg insists that the tectonic plates of politics are shifting, and the choice has distilled down to a vote for his party or a Conservative party that will "cast the country adrift".

The Lib Dem leader appears to suggest that any post-election arrangement with the Tories would be a coalition of convenience rather than principle when he asserts: "There is a gulf in values between myself and David Cameron," adding: "They have no progressive reform agenda at all – only an unbearable sense of entitlement that it's just their time to govern."

During the two years of his leadership, Clegg has successfully maintained a position equally distant from the Labour and Conservative parties, but today he emphasises that the Liberal Democrats have shared progressive history.

His remarks go further than before in suggesting that if he feels the electorate has given him a choice, his instinct will be to form an alliance of some form with Labour. He holds out no hope of securing electoral reform from Cameron. >>> Patrick Wintour, Allegra Stratton and Aida Edemariam | Friday, April 30, 2010

Why Doesn’t Somebody Jail These SOBs?
TIMES ONLINE: The chairman of Britain’s biggest state-owned bank has defended multimillion-pound salaries for senior staff, despite widespread objections.

Sir Philip Hampton told the BBC Today programme that although banking sector remuneration was “astonishingly high”, staff at Royal Bank of Scotland would leave unless they were paid the market rate.

Politicians in each of the main parties have called for caps on bankers’ bonuses and Sir Philip — whose bank is 83 per cent owned by the taxpayer — has a difficult task in persuading the public that they are justified.

Sir Philip conceded that it was difficult to defend the pay gap between most people and some bank staff, but he told the BBC: “If we don’t pay our top people, they leave very quickly. Our top people are very much in demand and we have seen a significant loss of our top people.” RBS chief Sir Philip Hampton defends 'astonishingly high' bankers’ pay >>> Helen Power | Friday, April 30, 2010

Who Cares What You Think, Bliar? Voters Don’t Need Input from You; They Are Quite Capable of Making Up Their Own Minds
TIMES ONLINE: Tony Blair tries to shore up Gordon Brown’s flagging election campaign today with a warning that a vote for Nick Clegg is “not a serious thing”.

With five days to go, the former Prime Minister makes his first serious intervention since Labour’s slump in the polls. He tells The Times that the Liberal Democrats would be flaky partners in government and that a hung Parliament is a “thoroughly bad idea”.

To voters considering backing Mr Clegg, he says: “The fact that it might seem an interesting thing to do is not the right reason to put the keys of the country in their hands.”

Amid warnings from senior Labour figures that a poor showing next week will threaten the future of the party, Mr Blair pitched himself into battle for the minds of voters seduced by Mr Clegg.

He conceded that the Liberal Democrat leader had been clever in projecting his promise of a new kind of politics. But he accused Mr Clegg of peddling “the oldest politics in the book” in seeking to blame his rivals for all the country’s ills.

Mr Blair urges voters to remember they are electing a government on May 6, not expressing a feeling. He insists that Gordon Brown deserves another five years because of the “political character”, strength and resilience he has shown during the financial crisis.

Mr Clegg dismissed Mr Blair’s arrival on the campaign trail as a sign of desperation, accusing Labour of “wheeling out the golden oldies to try to help out Gordon Brown in his hour of need”. He said the Lib Dems were in a two-horse race with the Tories. Blair says a vote cast for Clegg is 'not serious*' >>> Rachel Sylvester, Alice Thomson, Roland Watson | Saturday, May 01, 2010

*And was a vote for you serious, Mr Blair? – © Mark

John McCain Swings Right in Desperate Bid for Political Survival
THE GUARDIAN: One-time moderate Arizona senator keeps step with the Tea Party and gets tough on illegal immigration

John Ladd points to the piles of empty water and Coke bottles, a yellow blanket and numerous other bits of debris abandoned on his cattle ranch in Cochise county, near Tombstone, Arizona. The sprawling estate, stretching 10 miles along the US-Mexico border, is a favoured route for those making the illegal, dangerous and often fatal, journey to what they hope is a bright new future. >>> Ewen MacAskill in Tucson | Friday, April 30, 2010

Iran: We'll 'Cut Off Israel's Feet' If It Attacks Syria
HAARETZ: Iranian Vice President Mohammad Rida Rahimi warned on Friday that Iran would "cut off Israel's feet" if it attacked Syria, French news agency AFP reported.

"We will stand alongside Syria against any [Israeli] threat," Rahimi told reporters during a news conference with Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri in Damascus, adding that "If those who have violated Palestinian land want to try anything we will cut off their feet."

According to AFP, the Iranian vice president said that "[Syria is a] strong country that is ready to confront any threat," adding that Tehran "will back Syria with all its means and strength."

On Thursday, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referred to the recent torrent of allegations that Syria had transferred Scud missiles to the Hezbollah in Lebanon, and said that the Syrian President Bashar Assad was pursuing dangerous policies that could unleash war on the Middle East. >>> Haaretz Service and Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent | Friday, April 30, 2010

Israel: Rightists to Burn Posters of “Anti-Semitic” Obama
YNET NEWS: Activist Noam Federman says burning of posters bearing American president's image a legitimate act 'because he hates Jews'

Obama pics in Lag B'Omer piles. Photograph: Ynet News
Right-wing activists residing in Jerusalem's Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood threw posters bearing the image of US President Barack Obama into dozens of piles of wood and other flammable materials they intend to burn as part of the Lag B'Omer celebrations.

The activists prepared the heaps on Thursday so as not to desecrate the Sabbath. Lag B'Omer: Rightists to burn Obama photos >>> Shmulik Grossman | Friday, April 30, 2010

Barack Obama Threatens to Impose Peace Plan on Middle East
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama has warned Israel he will pave the way for an independent Palestinian state if the peace process remains deadlocked until the autumn.

The US president is proposing to hand control of the Middle East peace process to the international community unless there is a breakthrough in the next few months, Israeli officials have said.

Mr Obama has formulated a secret plan with leading European allies to convene an international peace conference by the end of the year, according to Israel's Haaretz newspaper.

The move would fulfil one of Israel's deepest fears by effectively stripping the Jewish state of its power to dictate the course of talks.

The conference would attempt to end decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict by pressing both sides to accept difficult compromises on issues ranging from the future of millions of Palestinian refugees to the status of Jerusalem.

Mr Obama is also eager to gain international recognition for the creation of a Palestinian state. >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Friday, April 30, 2010

On Outskirts Of London, Far-Right Seeks Foothold

Debt Contagion Fears Mount for Eurozone

Debt-ridden Greeks Angry at Defense Deal

Tony Blair flies to the rescue. Photo courtesy of ‘The Telegraph’
Puff the Magic Bliar!
THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair has denied that Gordon Brown had been a "failure" as Prime Minister, despite Mr Brown's apparent admission that Labour was heading for defeat in the General Election

Visiting Harrow in north-west London, Mr Blair insisted Labour still had "every chance of succeeding" in the general election.

Questioned about whether Mr Brown had failed in his time at Number 10, he said: "No I don't think he's failed at all."

Asked about the prospect that the party could come third in the share of the vote on May 6, the former PM replied: "I don't believe that will happen. I believe Labour has every chance of succeeding." General Election 2010: Tony Blair denies Gordon Brown has 'failed' >>> Robert Winnett, Andrew Porter and Murray Wardrop | Friday, April 30, 2010

Austerity Britain Will Hate Its New Government, Says King
TIMES ONLINE: The Governor of the Bank of England was at the centre of an electoral storm last night after saying that the austerity measures needed to tackle Britain’s budget deficit would be so unpopular that whoever wins next week would not get back into government for a generation.

Mervyn King’s opinion, revealed hours before the prime ministerial debate on the economy, came as a respected think-tank predicted that taxes would have to rise by the equivalent of a 6p-in-the-pound increase in income tax over the next ten years.

The Governor’s prediction was made to the American economist David Hale, who passed on the remarks in an Australian television interview. Mr Hale, who has known Mr King for many years, was commenting on debt levels in major economies when he turned to the British election. “I saw the Governor of the Bank of England last week when I was in London, and he told me whoever wins this election will be out of power for a whole generation because of how tough the fiscal austerity will have to be,” he said.

The Times has also learnt that Mr King gave a further indication of the concerns in Threadneedle Street when he recently told a senior American official that the markets would take a very aggressive view if no credible plan was contained in the Queen’s Speech on May 25. >>> Patrick Hosking, Peter Stiff, Richard Partington | Friday, April 30, 2010

Greeks Face Tax, Pensions and Pay Misery in Austerity Plan
Photograph: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: An increase in the retirement age from 53 to 67, a three-year wage freeze and cuts in public sector pay are understood to be among the austerity measures agreed to by the Greek Government in exchange for a €24 billion (£21 billion) rescue package.

The measures include severe cuts in Civil Service wages, with public servants losing their “13th and 14th” months’ salary and pension entitlements, a reduction of state benefits and tax increases on alcohol and tobacco to help cut the deficit. >>> Emily Ford | Friday, April 30, 2010